Huell Howser's domed volcano house he gifted to Chapman University. The two-bedroom, two-bath home sits atop a 150-foot volcanic cone on a 60-acre plot located in Newberry Springs, CA which is about 32-miles east of Barstow. The 1800-square-foot home was designed and built by architect Harold J. Bissner Jr. in 1968.

The Volcano House, built in 1968, looks like it just landed in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

The Volcano House, a flying-saucer shaped home atop a 150-foot cinder cone in the Mojave Desert, has sold for $750,000, the listing agent said Thursday, Oct. 1.

There was no immediate word on who the buyer is, or his or her intended use for the property.

Chapman University, which owned the home, received three offers at or above the $650,000 list price, Brady Sandahl of HOM Sotheby’s International Realty said last month.

The property hit the market Sept. 3. Huell Howser, the producer and host of the TV show “California’s Gold,” gave the iconic house, which sits on 60 acres, to Chapman University in 2012. He died a year later.

Sandahl said he and another agent listing the house considered other “architecturally significant” properties, mostly in the high desert, in coming up with the $650,000 price tag.

“We did go on the market at an appropriate value, and the market responded immediately with multiple offers,” he said in September.

Those interested in the property were prompted by different reasons, he said.

One prospective buyer had a thing for “rooflines,” Sandhal said, noting the home’s round, spaceship shape. Another was interested in the 60 acres, with an iconic house in the mix.

“Another buyer wanted to own the house because there’s nothing else like it in the world,” the agent said.

The university had said it would use the house for desert studies, astronomy and geology pursuits. But the home’s remote location in Newberry Springs, east of Bartstow, proved too impractical for the school.

“It’s pretty isolated out there,” Chapman spokeswoman Mary Platt said when the house went on the market. “It’s just too far away for us. There’s no support services for students as far as safety and that kind of thing.”

Annette Short of Barstow Real Estate Group was co-listing the home.

All proceeds from the Volcano House sale will go to the California’s Gold Scholarship fund set up by Howser, Platt said.

Marilyn Kalfus covers news, issues, and trends for The Orange County Register's award-winning Sunday Real Estate section, which in 2015 snagged first place for best U.S. newspaper real estate section from the National Association of Real Estate Editors. She also writes stories, edits photos and puts together slideshows for our popular Hot Homes feature about iconic, big-ticket and unusual properties on the market. On weekends, she edits police, breaking news and general assignment reporters.

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